Better Than Love
by NYC.Lovers
Summary: A series of stories/incidents during Mao and Okamura trip to find the Red Shield. How could they cross all the barriers to get together? Mao/Okamura. Read & Reaview please.
1. 01 Midnight in Paris

**Title:** Better than love.

**Author:** NYC Lovers a.k.a Lizzie.

**Category:** Original

**Disclaimer:** Blood+.

**Genres:** Romance, Drama.

**Rating:** T

**Pairing:** Okamura x Mao

**Warning:** OOC, .

**A/N:** I love this couple. They're just too cute, that's all. It's been a long time since I've watched the anime so I may not get the characters the same :D Please forgive me. Uni is a juggle, literally, I hardly find time to work on the series. But I'm obsessed with them so much that I have to do a series about them.

I want to gave my thanks to ~thuyvy. Her ideas are always the BEST :D Thank you for supporting my story and me. Moahzz!

I use 'Better than love', the song of Griffin House, for the title. I love the song so much. It was featured in the movie 'Not since you' and I've been loving it since then. For the mini-chapters' names, I used movie titles. I hope they work well with the story. Some of the movies I haven't watched but thanks to my lovely friend (he's not on ) for suggesting such wonderful titles.

**Read & Review please :" Curses are also welcome!**

* * *

><p><strong>01. Midnight in Paris<strong>

It was cold.

Mao never expected France was _this_ cold. Stupid weather forecast. She was too trusted the stupid weather forecast on the news yesterday. The lady on TV said it would be warm today and now it was freezing. Okamura should have known about this. Mao looked irritate at his warm clothing he put on him today. Gezz, when would that man start to care for her? She _paid_ him already. Actually she never asked him to take care of her but wouldn't this situation concern any man on Earth? How could he let a young girl wearing just two layers of clothes die slowly from the freaking cold and he act normally like nothing happened?

Mao continued walking with the journalist along side the pavement of Paris. The dark was about to cover all places. Despite feeling guilty, Mao had to admit that she did not remember the last time thought about Kai, the boy she thought she was in love with. The trips with Okamura were far more interesting than she thought, not because of his stupid work about strange creatures and piles of deadline but the fights between him and her. They were funny after all.

* * *

><p>'Give me my cigarettes, Mao. I don't have time to play around with you.' Okamura finally gave up his tolerance, shouting at the eighteen-year-old girl sitting (or lying) on her bed, reading a magazine. Without cigarettes, he could not concentrate on writing his reports.<p>

'What's the matter with you? You aren't going to submit it anyway. Why putting so much effort?' She looked up for a moment and frowned. Then she looked down to her magazine again. 'I don't like their smell. Get rid of the habit already.' She scolded. He would never know that she was really worried about him anyway.

'Damn it!' He muttered and turned back to his laptop. She was not his mother, why did she bother to act like one. He was old enough to take care of himself. It was strange to be looked after by a girl about ten years younger than him.

* * *

><p>'Don't act spoil, kid. As long as I'm here, no alcohol.' Okamura grabbed the bottle of wine from her hands. 'You're too young to be wasted. Be kind to your liver.' No matter how annoying Mao was, she was still a young girl. And he could not let a beautiful girl like her bury herself in alcohol.<p>

'You should be kind to your lungs.' She made an attempt to get the bottle back but Okamura was too tall. Mao could not reach the bottle when he raised his arm straight up in the air. 'Give me that!'

'Go to bed. I don't have time to kook after you after you drunk _again_! I've got reports to do.' Thought he did not understand why, he was in real worried every time she passed out because of putting too much alcohol in her stomach.

'I never asked you to take care of me. I paid you to take me to Kai, that's all!' She shouted.

She finally got her bottle back but she could not feel the satisfaction from winning against Okamura again. There was a strange look deep inside his eyes when he unwillingly gave back her the bottle.

* * *

><p>Mao saw a convenient store at the corner. She rushed to the store without letting Okamura know about it. Realised the annoying girl had left him behind, Okamura started to follow her. He knew, he just knew, that the only thing in this world that made she rushed like that was either Kai or alcohol. Kai could not be here now, so it left to one option: alcohol.<p>

As he guessed, when he entered the store, Mao was holding two bottles of beer in her hands and was about to check out. When she saw him, Mao put an annoying expression on her face. He always stopped her from buying those and always lost in their arguments. He slowly approached her and took the beers from her hands.

'Give me back my beers, old man.' Mao said alertly.

'No, I'm serious Mao, not tonight. You can't drinks those kinds of drink everyday, you'll get addict to them.' He put the bottles back in their place and pulled her out of the store before she could say or do anything.

'What's wrong with you?' Mao said angrily.

'You need to learn how to put your pride away in some circumstances, Mao!' He called her by her name. He never did before. Mao did not know what to say right now. For the first time, she felt like she had done something guilty. For the first time she realised that he stopped her from drinking was not just because she hid away his cigarettes, but because he really was worried about her. Mao looked at Okamura for a while. In front of her was the clumsy, untidy, mean journalist that she could not help but getting into a fight with him every time they talk. What should she say in situation like this?

Okamura slightly sighed.

'Put this on.' He wrapped his thick jacket over her shoulders and turned away. She wondered what his face looked like right now but all she could see was his wide back.

'Thank you.' She finally found her voice and let the two words out uneasily.

'Hurry up before you can't move anymore.' He just ignored what she said just now completely.

* * *

><p><strong>That's it for now... What do you guys think...<strong>

**I'm not good at writing stories in English so please comment on any mistakes ^^ **

**My very first Blood+ fan fic & Okamura/Mao is my favourite pair :X I'll only write about them =)) Old habit dies hard =))**


	2. 02 Going the distance

**I owned nothing :)**

* * *

><p><strong>02. Going the distance<strong>

'Shit! Where are the lights in this damn hotel?' Okamura complained while he was trying to find where to turn on the lights. They caught up with Saya's team today. He did not know what to feel when they saw everyone, including _that_ kid – Kai. He knew Mao was more than happy to see her boyfriend, as she claimed. But he did not feel happy at all. He thought that the sooner he found Saya and everyone, the lesser time he had to spent with that bossy girl of the yakuza. He was wrong all the way. He did not wish for a quiet room without all the yelling, screaming, shouting of _someone_. He did not wish for smoking cigarettes freely without _someone_ taking them, sometimes hiding them, away from him.

'Ah, found you! Why does it have to be so complicated… wah wah wah…'

To be honest, he was in a huge surprise when he saw who was sitting quietly in his room.

'What are you doing here?' Okamura spoke clearly every word.

No answer.

Damn! The situation was not good at any point. Mao looked horrible. He was sure that she had gone through serious crying and now she had reached the current state of depression. He remembered very clearly how happy she was this morning when she saw Kai. And now her expression suggested that the reunion might not go too well. No, Mao always knew to handle situations, unless it was something unexpected. Did Kai say anything to her? Definitely. The way that kid looked at Saya was far too different from they way he looked at Mao. Okamura could tell that. Because the way he looked at Mao was different from the way she looked at him, he thought.

Okamura was about to light up another cigarette, but he realised Mao was in the room. To his own surprise, he put it away.

'Want some alcohol, kid?' He could not believe himself. He just broke his rules of caring her and offered her the spoiled liquid that he absolutely hated.

'No.'

'What happened?'

'Kai broke up with me.'

'What?' Okamura could not hide his astonishment. Just like that. She was _defeated_ just like that. She turned to him and stared at him for a long time. She did not reply to his surprise. Correction, she did not do anything whatsoever. 'Sorry, I didn't mean anything…'

'Right. Don't feel sorry for me. I don't need it anyway.' What the well did she just say? Didn't she come to his room with the tiny tiny little hope that he could comfort her? Okamura was not the man for these kinds of thing after all. He was only at his best when she tried to pick up a fight with him.

'Then what exactly are you doing here?' Damn, he felt like needing a cigarette right away. Every time anything related to this yakuza princess happened, he always had to have a cigarette to calm himself down and put all his thought together. She effortlessly concerned him in every situation. He knew the reasons why, he just could not say it out loud, even admit to his own heart.

'I don't know.'

'You need alcohol to forget about that kid. You really need it, so I guess I'll pretend like I don't know you drink tonight.' Okamura put on his coat. He got closer to Mao with full care and gently grabbed her arm. He pulled her out of his bed and put the coat on her, which was lying on the floor. 'Let's go somewhere where that kid couldn't found you for just one night.'

'Hey, Akihiro…' Mao whispered.

He could not say anything. She called him by his first name for the very first time. She did not even bother to call him by his last name before, just 'old man'. And what the hell was she doing right now? Se gently wrapped her arms around him from behind. This kid needed comfort so bad. He knew it, and he was not happy. She did not hug him like she meant it. Shit, Okamura, since when did you feel so complicated? He said to himself.

It took him a moment to hide his surprise on his face. Okamura gently took her hands off him and turn around to see her. He gently put a hand on her head and rubbed it. 'Let's go. Hugging me is not as good as having some of your favourite drink. By the way, you'll probably hate it since I smoke a lot today, kid.'

'When will you stop calling me a kid?'

'When you actually grow up, kid!'

'Damn you, old man!'

She started to come back to herself.

* * *

><p><strong>Well, it took me a while to tink about it :) I don't want Kai to be the bad guy :) I actualli like him a lot. I'd like to see Mao &amp; Kai to be best friends =) The scenarios of Kai standing up for Mao against Akihiro (because of the couple love arguments =)) ) are haunted me somehow... I'll manage them in the next fic, not this one though.<strong>

**Read & Review me. I want to improve, curses are welcome :D**


End file.
